A Pain Rakk-Ale Can't Dull
by Rage of The Hero
Summary: After a crushing defeat at Handsome Jack's hands, the Vault Hunters pile into Moxxi's to drink away their sorrows. Chapter 2: Maya and Axton (Hurt/Comfort and Romance). Rating upgraded to M for some suggestive-ness and a metric-ton of swearing.
1. Over Her Head (Gaige and Zer0)

Heyo! New story! And NOT a year after the last one.

Anyways, self-deprecation aside, I wrote this story for my girlfriend (thus why it wasn't on my list of planned stories), and it is posted here with her permission.

Why yes, she and I do play as Gaige and Zer0 (respectively), why do you ask?

**SPOILER ALERT:** This takes place after a **_series _**of massive spoilers. If you know don't know what I'm talking about (and trust me, you'd _know_) don't read until you've finished the quest "Where Angels Fear to Tread".

**All characters and places belong to Gearbox Software.**

Enjoy the story, all. And lemme know what you think.

_**Note:** Some of Zer0's emoticon's didn't come out right because the left and right arrows won't save to the document. So if one of them doesn't make sense, cram the arrow-bracket things into it until it does._

* * *

"Dammit…just dull the pain already," Gaige whined into her rakk-ale. The liquid burned with its intoxication, yet it couldn't knock Gaige on her ass no matter how much she downed, which was unfortunate, since she sure as hell wasn't drinking it for its all-too-resembling-its-namesake flavor. Looking at the neat row of five dark green glass bottles sitting in front of her, her lips parted, baring clenched teeth as she snarled, "I've done the damn math. This much alcohol should have me puking into a porcelain throne or passed out on the floor."

Fate, or luck, or perhaps even the will of Pandora itself, however, had decreed that the mancer of mechros would feel this pain that tugged at her chest, weighing down her heart. As she gazed out around Moxxi's, which had been closed for the evening's private engagement, she could tell she wasn't the only one.

But then, days like today could have that effect.

The day has started with an excruciating charge up the mountain towards the Guardian Angel's AI Control Core, capped off by a ferocious battle with a giant flying droid with enough firepower to level a small town. And they had had to do all of this while only being able to speak in Handsome Jack's voice, which only served to anger them every time they opened their own mouths. And despite the exhaustion, the battle with BNK-3R had been the _easy_ part.

Once inside the Control Core, they were hit with one shocking blow after another. First, they discovered that the Guardian Angel, who they had been ready to kill for betraying them and nearly getting Sanctuary destroyed, was not only a Siren enslaved by Jack, but was in fact his own daughter. Cutting off the Eridium supply she had become fatally dependent on was hard enough after learning these facts, but then things had gotten worse.

Jack had killed Roland and captured Lilith.

While the Soldier's shields were still down from the battle with Jack's Angelic Guardian Loaders, the coward had shot Roland in the back, and when Lilith, in a rage had charged in to attack before Gaige or her companions could get their bearings, he had used some kind of device to entrap her, forcing her to teleport them into Marcus' basement.

After helping Mordecai spread the word to the specific people who needed to know, the drunken Hunter had quite rightly declared that everyone involved needed a drink, badly. And so there they all were, huddled into Moxxi's bar, trying to drink away sorrows that refused to go anywhere, even for one night.

Moxxi was still in tears behind the bar, mascara running down her chalk-white face more so than was the norm for her. Scooter, bless his stupid heart, was attempting to console her, but sadly, it turns out, when one is already dumb as a post, shotgunning lagers makes coherent sentences consistently impossible.

Marcus sat in one of the booths, wobbling in his seat, his craggy face somber, a pen in his hand and his checkbook opened on the table in front of him beside a not-to-be-sneezed-at row of beer bottles. He scrawled out something on a check, tore it out, and stuffed it into a crinkled white envelope, before scratching out a mailing address onto it and lick-sealing it shut.

Across the lane, Maya and Axton sat opposite Zed, as the medic slurred his way through a barrage of stories about Roland and his friends' exploits. Gaige couldn't hear him distinctly over the somber saxophone playing on the radio, itself distorted from when Salvador had punched it to shut up a renegade Loader AI Core, but she was able to pick out key phrases such as "Zombie Army", "Fort Knoxx", and "Robolucion".

Maya had been near catatonic ever since the return to Sanctuary. The Siren had clearly been overjoyed to discover another of the fabled dimension benders in Lilith, despite the latter's less-than-profound knowledge of Siren origins. It was perfectly natural that after watching one of her kin die and another be captured to be subjected to the same fate as the first, Maya's resolve would be broken. And so she was slumped in her seat against Axton, her cerulean locks splayed across the shoulder of his brown jacket.

Axton, to his credit, seemed to have switched off his near-omnisexual flirtatiousness, only putting an arm around Maya's shoulders as he listened to Zed's stories of Roland's band, gently rubbing her bare left shoulder with his thumb. As a fellow ex-military man, the Commando had a deep respect for Roland, despite openly stating that working directly under someone so reserved and cautious would have driven him insane. Taking a sip from his beer, he chuckled as Zed mentioned something about a "giant god damned Claptrap".

Further down the row, Salvador and Brick sat across from each other, pounding down beer after beer. Based on Brick's earlier suggestion of skinning everyone Jack had ever met "with their own damn teeth", the giant man had to be grieving. Such an idea might be laughable to some, but Gaige had some talent for observation, and no man who wears the paw of a cherished puppy as a keepsake can be without a soft side. As for Salvador, it was tough to tell exactly how he felt, what with the constant swearing and yelling, but Gaige had a feeling that despite Salvador's rather…exuberant indulgence in a not-insignificant number of criminal activities, Jack's cowardly assassination of Roland and torturous bondage of Angel were beyond even Salvador's surprisingly generous sense of forgiveness.

And then, in the back corner, sat Mordecai, with a pile of rakk-ale bottles that dwarfed the combined refuse of everyone else in the bar. He was mid-swig when Gaige looked back at him, before setting down the bottle, hand still gripping the neck. Suddenly, he rose to his feet, let loose a stream of angry spanish, and hurled the bottle to the floor, shattering and splashing its remaining contents across the wooden slats. His steady stance and even speech indicated that even he, chronically drunk as he was, couldn't dull his rage-filled brain. He stormed outside, after which Gaige heard several shots fired from his sniper rifle, and more cursing. But of course Mordecai would be furious. Not only had he lost two of his closest friends to Jack's machinations, but not too long before this, Jack had taken from him his lifelong companion Bloodwing in the cruelest way possible. The storming of Angel's Control Core was supposed to facilitate his revenge, not leave him with more lost friends.

Gaige turned back to the open bottle in front of her. How did she feel about all of this? Bad, to be sure, but what more than that? She was a late addition to the Crimson Raiders, and hadn't gotten to know Roland or Lilith nearly as well as the others. Angel, she had known a little longer, the girl having guided her from the Spaceport on the other side of the planet to the Tundra Express, where she had first met Maya's group in the middle of a raid to steal back some massive explosives for a _very_ disturbed little bomb-maker named Tiny Tina. The Mechromancer had still been coming to terms with all the changes in her life, even as she and her new friends were gearing up to take on the dreaded Wilhelm and Maya was filling her in on the frankly disastrous situation on Pandora. Hell, even _now_, she was having trouble processing that the her best chance for avoiding execution on Eden-5 was to come to Pandora.

_Pan-fucking-dora_, the infamous goddamn death world. More lethal than Australia back on the old Earth, so many centuries ago. And shit, Gaige had never held a gun before coming to this place. Sure she had a floating robot with digistructing laser claws and a freaking electric face-laser, but the fact was she was just a mechanically prodigious high school girl from who had had to leave behind everything she knew because of one little accidental murder that wasn't even her fault and she missed her daddy and couldn't even echo him because what if the authorities traced it to her or worse him and her mother and ever since she had gotten here she had been feeling randomly horny which was incredibly weird for her and animals and people and robots of all shapes and sizes wanted to kill her or worse and-

Gaige let out a shuddering sigh, and folded her right arm on the table, brushing the bottles out of the way with her robotic left, and slumped face down on the table, letting loose a flood of tears. She didn't know whether she was crying more for Angel or herself. The girl's fate at the hands of her own father filled her with disgust and sadness, but it also reminded her that her own father, whom had been incredibly loving and supportive, even helping her escape from the most corrupt police force in the galaxy at an _incredible_ risk to himself, was lost to her forever, even if he _hadn't_ been killed or arrested for helping her.

Helping her… That was the worst part: Handsome Jack genuinely thought that the life he had forced Angel into had been _for her own good_. Gaige lifted her head from the table and dropped it back down with a thud. And she wept, both for Angel and for herself; Angel, she wept for the life the poor girl had never had, instead leading a life so painful that she welcomed an excruciating death; Herself, she wept for the life that she could never have again, and the excruciating death she would probably face on this godforsaken rock.

"Freely flowing tears,

Lead me to the conclusion,

That-"

"Please… Zer0. You know that I love the whole 'I can think of Haiku on the fly and be so badass that I don't care that some of them are lame, and can kill the crap out of anybody who says so to my face' thing you've got going on, but tonight is just-"

"… Yes. Brevity tonight," Zer0 replied, his voice hard through the synthesizer, "… Today sucked."

"Drown your sorrows? 'S not working very well for me anyway," Gaige sighed as she pushed the half-empty bottle out to him.

"I do not drink," he replied, sitting across the table from her.

"The hell you don't," Gaige looked up, one eyebrow raised, "You at least got drunk enough for the Zafords to let you into Lucky's wake. So, super drunk."

"… Anything for the challenge."

"Right. The _challenge_."

Zer0, more than anyone else, was a mystery to Gaige, largely because he was such a paradox. On the one hand, he was a badass ninja who walked into gunfights with a sword and won. On the other hand, he had almost no grasp of sarcasm or subtlety and spouted off frequently-awful haiku in the middle of battle. But on the _other_ other hand, he did everything, cool and lame alike, with such confidence that even the lame stuff seemed kinda cool.

"Zer0… What the crap happened today? I mean… how could-?"

"Jack is a monster.

Monsters do, without reason.

And I'll have his head."

Zer0 hissed the last line, his black mask illuminated by a glowing red "**:-[**".

"So, you're angry too, huh?" Gaige asked, deciding not to comment on Zer0's continued use of haiku. At this point, it almost seemed like a tic or compulsion.

"How could I not be?

I may be a cold killer,

But I know evil."

"Yeah, and today evil kicked our asses. What are we gonna do, Zer0? Roland's gone, and we have no plan. Angel's gone so we're flying blind. Oh, _and_ we might not even live long enough for any of that to matter because now that Lilith's been captured, Jack might decide to just _blast Sanctuary out of the sky!_"

"Well he hasn't," Zer0 shrugged, "Couldn't do anything about it if he did."

"… Zer0, you are _awful_ at comforting people."

"Not surprising. Never try."

"Well, thanks for making an exception for me. Really, no sarcasm," Gaige smiled sadly at Zer0.

The assassin said nothing, but his mask lit up with "**^_^**".

"Y'know, Zer0? I know absolutely nothing about you. I don't know if the emotes actually represent how you feel. I don't know whether the haiku are intentional or not. I don't know if you're really as ignorant about how people interact as you seem. I don't know whether you really care about the rest of us. And even if I did know the answers to any of these, I wouldn't know _why_, and you know what?"

Zer0's mask lit up "**?"**.

"I still think you're awesome," she giggled, reaching across the table to grab one of his hands, "I don't even know if you're human or not, by the way I'm guessing 'not'," Gaige noted as she intertwined her fingers with his and was reminded that he had one less per hand, "But I think you're awesome. You're like, _everything_ I was thinking about when I built Deathtrap, except you're, y'know, a guy. Unless you're a girl, which would be just as cool. But the point is that you do with flesh and blood what Deathtrap does being made of metal and floating. I wish I could be half as awesome."

"Though Deathtrap is strong,

Strength does not come from nothing.

Its strength is your own."

"Well you are just sweet as hell," Gaige giggled, knowing as she did so that she was probably becoming disruptively giddy, but she didn't care enough to look around for the confirming stares she was no doubt receiving.

Zer0, evidently, did care, as he stood from his seat, stepped around to her side of the table and scooped her up, knocking over one of the…seven-? Gaige could have sworn it was only five earlier.

"I thought you didn't drink. What the hell?" Gaige whined.

"I thought it wasn't doing anything for you," Zer0 replied.

"… Did I really down two more bottles while we were talking?"

"Yes."

"I didn't even realize I had kept drinking… Though that does explain why I'm suddenly feeling very very nauseous. Zer0, promise you won't hate me if I puke on you?"

"I promise," looked at her with a "**:)**" on his mask as he walked past the bar, dropping a wad of dollars into the tip jar.

"… Insert double entendre here," Moxxi sighed half-heartedly, "I promise I'll have something better next time."

After a moment she shouted towards the door, "No, really! You can insert _your_ double entendre here any time!" but they were already gone, "Well, shit."

* * *

A train in the Tundra Express…

A train station named "Ripoff"…

Too many bandits for a stolen Hyperion shotgun to handle…

Deathtrap digitally dissolving under a hail of bullets…

A ninja bursting into the station, his sword in his left hand and a Jakobs sniper rifle in his right…

Bandits screaming…

Bandits _dying_…

A three-fingered hand extended to her…

The ninja gently pulling her to her feet…

His hands holding her steady…

"This fight is over.

But many more are waiting.

Want to kill some shit?"

* * *

Gaige was awakened by a splitting pain in her skull, which she quickly found to be matched by a piercing one in her stomach.

"Ah crap… Please don't be skull-shivers, _please_ don't be the damn skull-shivers…"

"Not the shivers. Alcohol," came the mechanically filtered voice of her ninja companion.

"Wuh…? Oh. Right. The drinking…" Gaige groaned, slowly pushing herself up. Her vision was still clouded, but she could tell from the dim, but distinctly teal light that they were in her room at the hostel.

Unless of course, Zer0 had the same Rainbow Dash nightlight that she did.

She was upright for not quite three seconds before she felt and very nearly saw an ice-cold glass being shoved into her hands.

"Drink."

And then, just as the glass touched her lips, she felt a plate being set down on her lap. In the dull green glow of her nightlight, she could see a pile of pretzels, swiped from the bar.

"Dammit Zer0, if I eat anything right now I'm gonna spew _everywhere_."

"Better to absorb the alcohol than to let it sit."

"… I swear, when I puke, you're holding my hair back," she grumbled, slowly picking up a single pretzel and chewing it even slower.

A long silence passed, broken only by soft sounds of Gaige drinking water and eating pretzels.

"… Hey, Zer0? Thanks for, y'know, this."

"It is nothing, for a friend," Zer0 replied, "Is it helping?"

"I am feeling better, now that you mention it," Gaige smiled, and pushed the plate toward the ninja, "You want any? I'm full."

"… No thank you."

"… Zer0, do you ever take your mask off? I mean, you've gotta take it off to eat and drink, right? Or do you just not do that?"

"Only in private.

I require food and water,

But very little."

"So…not a robot, then?" Gaige chuckled.

"No," Zer0 almost seemed amused by the notion.

"An alien?"

"… 'Zer0' is a man,

With some strange physical traits,

And a skill for death."

"… But you weren't always 'Zer0', were you?"

Zer0 didn't answer, and his faceplate only lit up "**…**". Realizing she had just made things _very_ awkward, Gaige slowly got out of bed, slipping away into the bathroom. Flicking on the lights, she winced at the brightness of them, before her eyes adjusted enough to take a quick inventory of the bathroom counter.

Her toothbrush. Her mouthwash. Her…well, nothing else except the hostel's towels and soap, since she had had only been able to fill a small duffel bag before leaving Eden-5. But it was enough to confirm that it was her bathroom, and thus, her room. With a sigh that could have be born from either sheer exhaustion as much as disappointment that Zer0 didn't share her interest in ponies in equal chance, Gaige reached up and pulled off her goggles and unfastened the riveted metal straps that bound her hair up in pigtails, letting her red mane fall around her face to her shoulders. She then removed her homemade nuts-and-bolts choker, necklace, and bracelets and set them on the counter. Leaning over the sink, she turned on the faucet, and when the water was ice-cold to touch, she cupped her hands under the stream and splashed her face with it. Looking up at the mirror, she saw that she looked as bad as she felt. Her normally bright green eyes were dull, and still had a raw pink rim from the crying she had done at the bar. And then there were the dark, sunken rings beneath her eyes, which had been slowly developing since she first stepped off the transport. Seeing those rings of exhaustion, she was once again reminded that unlike the rest of her band, the life of battle was unknown to her save for the last few days. For the first time since she had arrived on Pandora, she wondered if facing her execution on Eden-5 might have been the smarter move.

"Too late for regrets, Gaige… Hell, come tomorrow, you and the rest of Sanctuary might be vapor."

Turning to the small washing machine and dryer in the corner, she popped open the door of the latter to find it distressingly, but unsurprisingly empty.

"This is what I get for only bringing one spare change of clothes," she muttered, unbuttoning her hoodie, peeling off her glove, unbuckling her tool belt and regular belt, unzipping her skirt and kicking off her shoes, knowing that somewhere out in the darkness of her room was a pile of clothes that she should have cleaned. After she hung her belts on the hooks on the back of the door and tossed the clothes into the washer, she began to slide her stockings down her legs. As they reached her knees, however, she paused, realizing that Zer0 might still be in her room where she'd left him, and while her torn red t-shirt did in fact reach down her thighs enough to _technically_ keep her modest, she wasn't sure if she wanted to be showing off her panties to the alien ninja. She considered her options. She could always yell out from the bathroom that she'd like him to leave, and wait until he'd left to step out of the bathroom, but that seemed like poor manners, given what he'd done for her that night. The least she could do was ask him to leave in person.

"And besides, do I really want to be alone tonight, knowing that it might be my last?" After a long moment, she added, "… Would I really want to be alone after today even if a fiery death _weren't_ an immediate possibility?"

Besides, Zer0, as she'd so bluntly pointed out, was an alien. He probably wouldn't care if she walked out to bed with no pants. He probably wouldn't even _notice_. And the stockings were stained with more blood and oil than was particularly comfortable…

But she would notice.

"… I'm not seriously considering this, am I?"

No. She was certainly not. After one last moment's hesitation, she pulled her stockings back up, started the washer, walked back over to the sink, popped open the bottle of mouthwash, poured some into her mouth, swished it for a minute, then spat it in the sink. As she turned to the door, however, she remembered exactly why she had been in such a hurry to leave. Still, it wasn't as though she could just stay in the bathroom all night…

Taking a deep breath, she opened the door, to find the room still dark, and Zer0 still sitting motionless beside the bed, "**…**" still gleaming red before his helmet.

"Zer0? Look, I'm sorry for the whole 'digging into your past' thing. It was bad form, and I feel like an ass-"

Zer0 simply held up a hand.

"Of my many pasts,

I have not shame nor regret.

But what's past is past."

Gaige smiled with relief, slowly walking back over to the bed, lifting the covers and slipping beneath. Meanwhile, Zer0 continued,

"Beneath this black glass,

Is flesh that once defined me.

Now, _this_ is my face."

He said the last line with no small degree of finality.

Gaige sighed, lowering her head to her pillow, "And the suit's your skin? I can respect that, but…" she giggled softly, "That sounds like a really uncomfortable skin, Zer0…"

"… You get used to it."

"… Does this mean you don't shower?" Gaige let out a snorting laugh.

"Don't take it so literally," Zer0 shot back, his face lighting up "**_**".

"Sorry. I couldn't help myself," Gaige snorted again, before unsuccessfully stifling a yawn.

"If you are tired,

And who wouldn't be tonight?

I shall take my leave."

"Wait!" Before he'd even stood completely from the chair, Gaige was up on one knee, both her real and metal hands clasped around his wrist.

One awkward moment later, she released him from her grip, and began to slink back under the covers, turning away from him in embarrassment, tripping over her words, "… Please stay. Tonight. Here. Jack still has plenty of time to remember that with Lilith captured, Sanctuary has no defense against a moonshot barrage. I mean, yeah, Lilith was bluffing about being able to phase the city again, and the first time was a freakin' miracle, but that doesn't even matter now that he's got her, and I…" she hesitated, not sure how this all sounded, but Zer0's continued silence drew the last words from her, "… I don't wanna die hungover and alone."

"… Then I will stay. I think that…I too would rather face death…with a friend."

Gaige rolled over to smile at him in the dim teal light, before shuffling back to the other side of the bed to stand, "Would you like the bed, then? It'd be bad manners for me to ask you to stay, and then make you sit in the chair all night."

"Manners aside, the chair is fine. I always sleep as such."

Gaige paused as she heard this. "When you say 'always', do you mean 'Zer0' always sleeps in a chair, or do you mean that you've _always_ slept in a chair?"

"Not always. Just since I became an assassin… Still a long time."

Looking over her shoulder at him, Gaige wondered if she was really about to do what she was thinking about doing. Turning to face him, she sighed, and then gave a slight smile.

"C'mere."

* * *

"… How do you feel?"

"… Exposed. Vulnerable," Zer0 replied sourly.

Gaige couldn't help but giggle, "You get used to it."

Zer0 was lying flat on his back beside her on the bed, still wearing his armor, and having vehemently refused to get under the blanket. Gaige almost wanted to think he was being gentlemanly, but it was probably so that in the event of a break-in he could immediately get up without getting tangled.

"Relax, Zer0. The most immediate threat to our lives isn't going to be stopped by you being a few seconds slower to wake up."

"… Is that a challenge?"

"No. No it is not."

Gaige felt Zer0 stiffen, but at last his muscles relaxed a bit, and he sank ever so slightly against the mattress.

"… Thank you… For this."

"Psh. Zer0, you've been saving my life since, _literally_, I stepped off the train in Tundra Express. This doesn't even compare to that."

"… Perhaps it's worth more than you think."

"I know it's not worth as much as saving a life. Do you _remember_ how we met? I step off the train, and the bandits and psychos descend in _droves_. I send out Deathtrap, he goes down in like five seconds, and then I get pinned behind the train. And then, when I'm about to do the _exact_ thing I left Eden-5 to avoid, which is to say _die horribly_, who should swoop in like a complete _badass_ and mop up the whole station?"

"You did kill a fair share while I had them distracted."

"_But_ I didn't do it while straight-arming a sniper rifle like it was a freaking handgun. Oh, _and_ I was still hiding behind the train like wuss-"

"Sensible person."

"Well where's the damn fun in being sensible?"

"It keeps you alive.

Long enough to become strong.

No one starts badass."

"I can't imagine you as a non-badass, Zer0. Hell, I have trouble wrapping my head around you not in the suit or wearing the helmet. I can't even imagine calling you anything _but_ 'Zer0'."

"As is the intent," Zer0 replied,

"'Zer0' is the void.

From which everything came,

And where all return."

"… Huh… That's a better explanation than I was expecting. So you _did_ choose the name yourself?"

"In a sense. The number appears on my face when I return someone to the void. That was my choice, and that decision led to the moniker-"

"… Do you ever get lonely?" Gaige blurted out.

"**?**"

"Do you get, y'know, _lonely_? Like being such a badass is all anybody sees in you? Like nobody really _connects_ with you?"

The "**?**" on Zer0's face was replaced by "**…**" once again, and he was silent.

"… I'm sorry-" Gaige was about to apologize, but then she saw something she could never have seen coming:

Zer0 raised his left hand and, with a few deft movements of the fingers of his right, revealed the zipper hidden in the elbow seam of the suit and ran it around his elbow, peeling away the glove and leaving his left hand and forearm bare.

"… I have a connection to you…Gaige," he said, his mechanical voice softer than usual.

That was the first time he had ever said her name; _Any _of the Vault Hunter's names.

She kinda liked it.

"M-me? All I do is gush about how badass you are!" Gaige stammered, still in shock at Zer0's gesture.

Zer0 simply held out his bare hand to her, a glowing red "**3**" lighting the bed.

"You ask me questions.

Questions I've given no thought,

For many lifetimes."

Gaige felt tears welling up in her eyes as she reached out to take Zer0's hand. Though the intense color of what little light the room had made it impossible to tell the hue of the skin, she could feel how smooth it was, how surprisingly soft, yet how firm the muscles beneath were, not cushioned by body fat. But above all else his hand felt warm.

Holding his hand in both of her own, tight to her chest, tears trickling down her cheeks, Gaige smiled up at Zer0, whose face still glowed crimson with, "**3**".

"… Zer0?"

"Yes?"

"… I think…" Gaige prayed that the red glow of Zer0's face was hiding the red blush of her own face as she stammered, "… I think I might be kinda, sorta…falling in love with you…just a little…maybe…"

Zer0 said nothing, but folded his thumb around the back of her hand and gently stroked it.

The feather-light feeling of Zer0's thumb on the back of her hand sent a soft tingle through Gaige, and then started lulling her to sleep. Just before she nodded off, however, she thought of one last question…

"… Hey Zer0? … How did we get into my room? Because I sorta…hid my room key…"

… In her bra, but Zer0 didn't need that much detail.

"I would not infringe,

Privacy or modesty,

So I smashed the lock."

Gaige let her eyelids drop, as she sighed contentedly, "… Such a gentleman."

Not long after Gaige soft snores began to fill the room, Zer0's head slowly drooped to the side, his mask displaying a dim red "**Zzz…**".

* * *

Leave comments/praise/death threats in the reviews section, folks! And again, I hope you enjoyed it.


	2. The Passing of Soldiers & Sirens (Ma&Ax)

Hello to you, my loyal subscribers. All *beep* …32 of you. (I kid, I kid.)

Anyway, blatant references aside, I come to you with another chapter. Not a great amount to say about it, just that it originally came about as an idea about why Maya can't use Eridium in-game to boost her powers, and when I realized that the best time for it to take place coincided with the last chapter, I decided to expand this story and stick 'em together.

**SPOILER ALERT: **Exactly the same as last chapter. In fact, apply that warning to every chapter.

As always, I hope you enjoy it.

**All characters and locations belong to Gearbox Software.**

_**Note:** And once again, Zer0's emoticon's refuse to save properly. Since there's only the one this time, I can say it's only saving as one slash when it should be three: Zer0's supposed to be blushing at that moment._

* * *

"-So then, Knoxx actually starts yellin', 'Aim for the face! The _face!_'"

Axton let out a barely-restrained laugh, clapping his beer bottle down on the table as he lurched forward, "I almost feel _bad_ for the guy…"

"Well, then wait'll ya hear about when they brought his sorry hide back _again_, right at the end!" Zed chortled through his whiskey-drenched surgical mask.

This time, Axton's jaw dropped open before the laughter hit, "Man, I wish _our_ enemies were so cooperative, eh Maya?"

"Huh…" Maya stared ahead, giving a noncommittal grunt.

Turning to look at her, Axton furrowed his brow.

"Yeah, Axton? I woulda brought this up sooner 'cept I didn't want to talk about her like she wasn't here, but now that I'm certain she _ain't_ actually here, is she alright?"

The commando sighed, and looked back across the table at Zed with a raised eyebrow, "Are _any_ of us alright after what happened today? No offense, Zed, but you've been drinkin' _through_ your damn mask since you got here."

"… I may have had a few beers of my own back at the clinic."

"Figured as much. But anyhow, I'll worry about the boss, you just keep on with your story; They brought Knoxx back _again_?"

"Sure did. Knoxx was just the first, ya see. They also brought back my brother, who was totally not me with a mustache because we're totally two different people and we're not even the same guy, to guard their factory, and that Steele bitch to protect their warehouse-"

"Okay, see, I'm gonna have to stop you right there. Didn't Steele get her sorry ass _eaten_? By a pile of tentacles that Roland and all them _killed_? Which was then sucked into _**another dimension**_?"

At this, Maya let out a subdued whine, slumping back against the seat of the booth.

Zed made no comment, instead responding to Axton with, "Eh. I guess ya should never underestimate Claptrap's ability to get into weird places. But the point is, Roland and his boys killed Knoxx-trap, obviously, along with Ned-trap and Steele-trap, and got their hands on the WIRED device, which that Blake guy from Hyperion loaded up with the Claptrap reboot sequence. So they went hunting for the original Ninja Assassin Claptrap. Claptrap's response was to bring Knoxx, Ned, and Steele back _again_. And they got killed off just as badly as the first two times. 'Cept for Steele, but bullets can't really compare to a giant alien tentacle, as far as causes 'a death go."

"Can't argue with that," Axton murmured, carefully encircling Maya's shoulders with his free arm and giving her bare left shoulder a hopefully-comforting stroke with his thumb.

"So they make it back to where the Ninja Claptrap's been hiding out, which is actually right outside 'a Fyrestone, at the bus depot. Marcus's waitin' to take them off-world after the whole Robolucion mess is sorted, and Claptrap shoots him in the back and calls in, for lackuva better term, a giant goddamn Claptrap."

Axton let out a hearty chuckle at the notion.

Before he could ask for more details, however, he was cut off by the sound of Mordecai's enraged shouting and the shattering sound of a beer bottle breaking against the floor. Both the medic and the commando turned to see the Sniper storming out the side door, unslinging his Slag rifle from his back as he did. A few moments after he disappeared out the door, several shots rang out, punctuated by the screeches of Rakk.

Turning back to his drink, Zed shook his head. "Poor kid. Seemed a loner when I first met him, years back. I think Roland was the first friend he ever made, besides that bird 'a his. And then there was that whole sad affair with Moxxi, and it's hardly a wonder he started drinkin'. I swear, even my brother never hit the sauce as hard as he does."

Axton's reflection on this was interrupted once again, this time by a loud thud from across the lane. Glancing over, he saw Gaige face-down on her table, messy red pigtails spread over its surface, her shoulders quivering.

"And now the kid's falling to pieces too. Fantastic…" Axton grumbled. But as he looked around, he saw that it wasn't just Maya, Mordecai, and Gaige. Indeed, _everyone_ was miserable; Brick; Salvador; Moxxi; Scooter; even _Marcus_ of all people.

And then a sobering realization hit the commando: he was the only one who wasn't grieving for Roland, just smarting from the bitter taste of defeat. Roland had seemed like a good man and all, but to Axton's mind he was just another superior officer: someone to be respected, but not a friend, or-

"… To Roland," Axton raised his bottle. Hell, _Sarah_ had been his superior officer, and he'd fucking _married_ her. The least he could do is pay Roland his due, "He deserved better than a bullet in the back."

"Amen," Zed raised his own bottle, then took a swig, still forgetting to take his mask off.

"Now, if you'll just gimme a sec before you finish your story," Axton set Maya against the seat back and started to stand, "I gotta make sure Gaige is-"

As Axton looked over at Gaige's table, he saw that the young mechromancer was no longer alone. Seated across from her was none other than Zer0.

"Make sure she's what-? Oh," Zed turned to see for himself what Axton was staring at, "… So, should I continue, or-?"

"Hang on," Axton muttered, trying to gauge what exactly Zer0 intended to do. Sure, Gaige had a quite frankly bewildering soft spot for the assassin, but that could only forgive so much of Zer0's lack of social grace and/or basic coherence, "I figure he's got a fifty-fifty chance of either cheering her up, making her suicidally depressed, or just confusing the livin' hell outta her."

Zed looked up for a second, as if thinking about something, but before he could say it, Axton cut in, "So fifty-fifty-fifty. Or three-way chance, whatever the numbers on that are. Thirty-three I wanna say."

When Axton saw Gaige smile at Zer0, he breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, least there's one thing I don't have to worry about," he chuckled as he sat back down, "So anyway, Zed; giant goddamn Claptrap."

"Right, so the thing's big. Like, 'bigger than the Destroyer' big. And tough. You wouldn't think the Claptraps could build it so durable, but they did. But y'know Roland and the crew aren't gonna let a little thing like armor plating stop them. So the shootin' starts, and the bullets are just bouncin' off the darn thing. But then Roland gets an idea: In addition to the guns, this sucker's spittin' out kamikaze Claptraps like party favors, which means that the damn thing's packed to the brim with explosives. So he tells Mordecai and Brick to lure it inta stoppin' for a few seconds by blastin' its bigass eye, and has Lilith warp him right inside of the ejection hatch, where he just drops his turret, and then warp them back out. Few seconds pass, and then things start explodin'. Giant Claptrap goes down, and the little one behind the whole mess gets tossed out. And well, you can probably guess how that goes for 'im."

"One bullet in the wheel?"

"Actually, Brick just kinda decked him one, and he was out. Then they hit him with the WIRED, and the whole time he's screaming about how he's gonna gut them, and wear their scalps and all that. But the reboot finally finishes, and he's back to the same old Claptrap. 'Cept, as we all later found out, more perverted, self-centered, and- well you know. Annoyin'."

"Waitwaitwaitwait…" Axton's mouth hung open for a second as he tried to find the words, "The…INAC…is living here in Sanctuary?"

"Yeah. 'Parently, the reboot voided the warranty, and since Roland was holding the WIRED, he got stuck with him."

"… Remind me not to talk shit about Claptrap again. Ever."

"Eh, I wouldn't worry too much. These days the little hunk 'a junk seems incapable 'a figurin' out that people hate him even when they say it to his face. Still, there's a reason Claptrap was sent out to Windshear."

"… Fear he'd try and kill everybody again?"

"No. Roland was worried that if he didn't do somethin' with Claptrap, the lil' bot was gonna get himself lynched. And he figured, what with Jack dumpin' all his broken shit out in Windshear, scavenging supplies would be a good enough excuse for Claptrap to go willingly. Few weeks go by, and then we hear that Claptrap's been captured by Captain Flynt and the Rippers. In fact, Roland was preparing to go on a rescue mission when-"

It was at that moment when the somber atmosphere of the bar was split by a loud, snorting giggle. All heads immediately turned to see Gaige smiling drunkenly at Zer0, on whom the disruptiveness of Gaige's inebriation was not lost. Standing from the booth, the spindly assassin swept up the young girl and began carrying her towards the side door, tipping Moxxi as he did.

"Well there's a recipe for hilarity right there," Axton grinned.

"… You're not worried about leavin' the kid with…him?"

"Nope. Maya, you got any problem with lettin' Zer0 take care of the little drunk?"

Maya turned slightly toward Axton, then shrugged her shoulders.

"See? It's fine."

"… Anyway," Zed decided to just go on with his story, "Roland got ready to rescue Claptrap from the Rippers. But the night before he was gonna leave, that lil' prick Shep Sanders snuck Jack, Wilhelm, and all his goddamn troops into New Haven and… Fuckin' hell I _trusted_ that lil' sumbitch!" Zed broke down into angry tears, "I told Roland that he was a good kid! Dammit, if Brick hadn'a killed him, I would have!" Zed's took a massive swig of his beer, after which his speech devolved into incoherent blubbering.

Axton sighed. He knew how this story ended, anyway. Taking another sip of his beer, he pulled a wad of bills out of his pocket and set it on the table, standing up and offering a hand to Maya.

Not noticing the gesture, Maya simply shuffled her way out of the seat and shambled toward the door. Still holding his hand out, Axton sighed, before sticking his hands into his pockets and gave Zed a short, "Thanks for the story. Drinks're on me," before turning on his heel and heading after the Siren. As he rounded the corner to the Hostel, he saw Maya sluggishly hauling open the front door, keycard in hand. Not keen on having to dig out his own, Axton double-timed it to the door, only to find Maya holding the door open with one outstretched arm.

Taking hold of the door himself, he Axton flashed Maya a grin, "Thanks, boss."

"Uh-huh…"

The pair stepped inside, and headed down the hall. Axton unzipped his inside jacket pocket to fish out his own key as they passed between the doors to Crazy Earl and Zer0's rooms, and stopped at the next door on the right: his own room. As he went to turn the key, however, it occurred to him that Maya might still need assistance. Of course, just following her into her room might be a bit forward…

Axton turned to look down that hall, only to see that Maya had trudged straight past her room and was slowly making her way up the stairs to the second floor.

"… Ah, hell," Axton sighed, before pocketing his key and turning after the Siren, keeping his distance in case she gave some sign that he wasn't welcome.

As they crossed the second floor hallway, Axton noticed that one of the doors had a distinctly…_smashed_ lock.

"… Is that-? No…" Axton muttered to himself. Double-checking the number on the door, however, he was forced to admit, "… Yep. Gaige's room."

As if on cue, the door snapped open, and Axton found himself eye-to-eye, or rather eye-to-mask, with Zer0.

"Uh… Hey, Zer0."

The assassin's mask was projecting a bright red "**…**", which remained even as Zer0 replied, "Hello."

"Goin' somewhere?"

"Illness is foreseen.

Food and drink shall remedy.

I go to procure."

"Kid's that blitzed, huh?"

"Out cold," the ninja nodded.

"Figures. Say, about the door-"

"The key was hidden.

Finding it meant groping her.

Not that kind of guy."

At this, Axton smirked, "I recall otherwise, but whatever you say. Just as long as-"

"I'll pay if we lose our deposit," Zer0 cut him off, his mask flickering "**/**" for a brief moment.

"Good man. Well, I'll leave ya to it. Got something I need ta take care of."

Zer0 looked down the hall at Maya, who was ascending the stairs to the third floor.

"Despairing the loss,

Of her Siren sisteren.

… Tread lightly, my friend."

"Friend ain't quite the word I'd use," Axton said, his grin widening, "But thanks all the same. Take good care'a Gaige, alright?"

"… Always."

With that, the two turned and went their separate ways down the hall. Knowing that there was one less thing to worry about, Axton sighed, "Damn. I don't give Maya enough credit. Dealin' with us is a freakin' nightmare, and I've only been at it for a day." As he continued up to the top floor, he thought back to his days in the Dahl private army, of leading the crack squad of Sarah's battalion. "I always just thought the squad was boring, but I really fuckin' took for granted how together they had their shit."

Rounding the corner, he caught the door to the balcony swinging shut. Stopping short of the door, Axton took a deep breath, "Alright Axton. Remember: Be sensitive, and don't run your mouth. And don't make a pass at her: Not the time or the place."

Opening the door to the balcony, the commando walked up to the railing, taking a moment to look out over Sanctuary. The flying city was so peaceful, blissfully unaware that it lay on the bring of destruction, that two of its heroes were lost; one to Jack; the other to death. Only the Vault Hunters new and old, Zed, Marcus, Scooter, Moxxi, and Tannis knew the truth, at Mordecai's discretion. But rumor would spread quickly; Lilith had not been back long and though she had made her presence clear when Phasing the city, very few had seen her; Roland on the other hand was very much a public face, and his absence would be not go unnoticed for long. Then panic would spread: fear that Jack would burn Sanctuary down with his moonshot cannon.

Axton did not share that fear: He knew how men like Handsome Jack worked, and such a man would not stand for such a small show, not after the "murder" of his daughter. No, Sanctuary's mere ruin was not enough for Jack. He would need to make a true spectacle of it. He would need to show the six galaxies that his dominion was supreme, despite the setbacks.

Only The Warrior would be able to serve "proper justice" to Sanctuary.

"… Hey, Axton…"

"Well look who finally found her voice," Axton chuckled, as he turned to see Maya leaning against the wall, gazing up at the moon, and the ominous H-shaped satellite floating before it. Axton's hopeful grin vanished as his gaze zeroed in on Maya's silver eyes, which were glassed over with tears. Leaning back against the railing, he watched her watch the moon base.

After a few minutes of just watching the sky, Maya broke the silence, "… Axton, do you think with enough Eridium, I could pull that damn moon base out of the sky?"

Axton raised an eyebrow, before admitting, "Undoubtably. I also think that if you did it would; A, kill a whole bunch of people when it landed, probably _innocent_ people given our recent luck, maybe even _**Sanctuary's**_ innocent people; and B, not stop Jack in the slightest. At this stage of his game, he's not on the base, he's gotta be with the Warrior."

"But that moonshot cannon is-"

"Not a threat'ta us. He won't use such a mundane weapon to kill us. Not when he could bring down an ancient alien super-weapon on our heads."

"… If you're certain," Maya sighed.

"I am."

"Still… If I could…" she raised her left hand, holding her palm up towards the moon, her brow furrowing slightly, and her tattoos all glowing the faintest sky blue, "…maybe it would be worth the risk…"

Axton couldn't help his gaze being drawn to the glowing, wavy patterns that ran along Maya's skin; up her left arm; peeking out from beneath her high collar; across the sliver of exposed skin above her chest; curving around her left hip-

"No, dammit," the commando muttered as he reluctantly pried his eyes away from Maya: his mind went exactly one place when he started thinking about her figure, particularly her bare left hip, and it was the one place he swore that he would not go tonight. Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he desperately fumbled for something to take his attention away from how very _very_ beautiful he found his blue-haired comrade.

To his utter astonishment, he actually found something that made him forget all about Maya's slender form: a small, rough rock of unrefined Eridium. Unremarkable in and of itself, finding the rock in his pocket reminded Axton of how it came to be there in the first place: When Lilith had teleported the group back to Sanctuary after the disastrous attack on Angel's Control Core, they had found themselves inside Marcus's storeroom. Though still shaken by the events in Angel's inner sanctum, the chance to mete out some karma to Marcus, reprisal for selling to the Bloodshots, had not been lost on them, and Zer0 and Salvador had descended upon the chests with Gaige in tow. Axton's attention, on the other hand, had remained on Maya, who had after a long moment reached awkwardly across to her left pocket with her gloved right hand, digging out a small hunk of unrefined Eridium. She had given it a long, blank stare, before shocking Axton by violently flinging it into the wall, hard enough that it had embedded. Remembering what Zed had said about Tannis having a use for raw Eridium, Axton had gone to wrench it from the wall: no easy feat, as he had found that it was stuck in pretty well, and only a strike with the back side of his hatchet had dislodged it. Pocketing it with the intent to give, or rather sell, the chunk to Tannis, he had turned to find that Maya had opened all of the storeroom's small cash-boxes, as was her prerogative as primary team treasurer. And yet, the boxes had only been emptied of money: the glowing purple blocks of processed Eridium had been left untouched. Shrugging it off at the time, Axton had collected the blocks and deposited them into his Storage Deck.

Axton had a hunch, earlier pushed to the back of his mind, that finding that small chunk of ore in his pocket brought back to the forefront. There had to be more to Maya's state of mind than her fellow Sirens.

"Hey, if you want to try, this'd be a start." he said carefully, before gently tossing the glowing purple rock to Maya, purposely aiming for her left side.

Startled, Maya reflexively caught the small Eridium chunk in her left hand, which was still shining blue. Her normally narrow eyes widened slightly in confusion, until she got a good look at what it was she held.

Her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates, she choked and sputtered trying to find words, and then the Siren whipped her arm out, sending the small Eridium chunk sailing into the night. She stood there for a moment, arm outstretched, breathing ragged, as she stared into space. Then her eyes focused in on Axton, and she bared her clenched teeth and strode up to the commando.

Axton prepared himself for a slap; he had a sixth sense for when people were going to slap him, which he hoped would let him evade.

Unfortunately, the sense had a very rigid definition of "slap". So when Maya drove the her index knuckle into his solar plexus, Axton took the blow full-on, doubling over, putting him in a perfect position for Maya to snap her right fist into his jaw, flooring him.

As he rolled up onto his shoulder to cushion his fall, he couldn't help but admire the strike: it had been a good long while since somebody who knew what they were doing had hit him properly. All the bandits ever did was throw their weight around, doing little more than shoving with their fists, rather than making the impact sharp to maximize damage. Just one more thing to admire about Maya-

As Axton rolled back up to a sitting position, he saw that despite the fury on Maya's face, her entire body was shuddering ever so slightly. And not from anger, either: her eyes, still wide, spelled fear.

Wincing as he mentally slapped himself, Axton sighed, "Okay. I'm an asshole and that stunt with the rock was uncalled for. I'm sorry. I just had'ta figure out whether that was what you've been so upset about."

"And you couldn't have just _asked?!_" Maya spat, spinning to face away from him and folding her arms.

"… Y'know, I didn't even think of asking. It seemed like an awkward conversation starter."

Maya slowly looked over her shoulder, her mouth slightly agape, one eyebrow raised in disbelief, before turning back away from him and muttering, "Well, I wouldn't have hit you."

"I'll keep that in mind, boss. But since we're on the subject of talkin', do you want to talk about this case of Eridium-phobia you've developed?"

Maya shrank, looking away to the side, before finally turning back towards Axton and slumping against the wall, letting her arms drop by her side. Still, she avoided meeting his gaze, her eyes affixed on the moon.

Sliding over along the railing so he was directly across from her, Axton leaned back and tried to give a non-cocky smile, though he received no indication of success or failure, "So…"

"… I came to Pandora to learn about Sirens; where our powers come from; why we can do the things we do; how we're chosen; what our purpose in the universe is. And do you know what I've found out so far?"

"I don't, no."

"… That we're all doomed."

Axton sighed, "Everyone dies, boss."

"Not like this you don't. Not like Angel…" Maya murmured.

"One death ain't a trend, Maya," Axton said, tentatively reaching a hand out to her right shoulder, "And we don't know how much Eridium Jack pumped into her, and let alone how _long_ he was doing it for."

"What about Lilith, huh? She's been using Eridium for four years? Less? And she _faints_ if she doesn't get enough."

"Okay, that's a better point, but she's only using a few chunks at a time, and that's not even counting the fact that she's expending all her power after she binges on the purple stuff. And let's not forget, she's still alive, so that's still only one Siren dead."

"Steele's dead too-"

"Okay, _Steele's_ death had nothing to do with being a Siren: She died because she was a _bitch_."

"…"

"Look, Eridium's obviously bad stuff, but Angel had it forced on her, and as for Lilith… Well, not to speak bad'a her, but she seems like she's inta her pleasures a bit too much for her own good. Besides, I wouldn't be surprised if she swore off Eridium entirely, after seeing what it did to Angel."

"I wouldn't be so sure…" Maya shrank back uncomfortably.

"Okay, so maybe Lilith's hedonism outweighs her common sense. But that's hardly a reflection on all Sirens."

"And what about tomorrow, when we go to this 'Eridium Blight', huh?" Maya finally locked eyes with Axton, "What happens to me when we go to a volcano that literally spits molten Eridium? Where I'll be _breathing_ Eridium dust?!"

"Inhalin' volcanic ash is bad for the whole team, but you've seen how much effort Lilith has to put into absorbing Eridium. Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't seem like something one can do by accident."

Maya stared at him, then slowly looked down at the balcony floor, shuffling her feet nervously.

"… Maya?"

"It's…not accidents I'm worried about…"

"That a fact?" Axton asked nonchalantly, "Can't say I share your concern. After all, you're _Maya_. Moral compass of the team, not to mention the brains. Ya know the risks, of course, and stayin' away from a vice is easier if you've never experienced it anyway."

Maya looked back up at him, biting her lower lip, eyes quivering like she was about to burst into fresh tears. "… Do you remember how I killed Wilhelm?"

Axton let out a nervous chuckle, "How could I forget? You tore him right outta his metal bits and threw him off a cliff! It was awesome-!" Axton's breath caught in his throat as he realized what Maya was trying to say, "… Oh. So you…?"

Maya nodded, averting her glistening eyes, "After Wilhelm struck me with one of his claws, I landed near one of the train cars, and I guess the train was transporting some Eridium, because there were a few broken pieces lying around. We were pounding Wilhelm pretty badly, but he was doing the same to us, and Gaige's equipment was pretty sub-par at the time, so while it seemed like we were gonna win, I wasn't absolutely certain we could do it without one of us dying. So I just decided that Eridium addiction was an acceptable risk, grabbed a piece and absorbed it which, by the way, _is_ easier than it looks. And then I Phaselocked Wilhelm and well…you know the rest."

"So you got a sample power rush? Big deal-"

"You don't understand!" Maya snapped, "It's more than just power! I felt…happy, and complete, and _alive!_" She closed her eyes, let out a quivering breath, and shuddered, from holding back tears or simply remembering the sensations Axton did not know, but neither answer made him feel less guilty about how arousing he found the huskiness of her voice as she breathed, "It…it was the most amazing feeling I've ever experienced…"

And then it all came together for Axton. The risk Maya had mentioned when musing over pulling the moon base out of the sky was neither the collateral damage nor the damage to her body. "So that hunk'a purple stuff in your pocket-"

"When Sanctuary was under attack, Lilith sent me to go get some while you and Gaige were helping Scooter get the engines running, and I…pocketed that piece, for emergencies. But I still remembered how absorbing Eridium had made me feel, and there were times where I almost… Even now, after seeing what it can do, I…" Maya collapsed to her knees, holding her shoulders, and broke into half-suppressed sobs.

"Maya…" Axton lowered himself to one knee, reaching out and gently taking hold of the Siren's chin. Tilting her head up to face him, he offered a soft grin, "You had a few moments of weakness. That's all. You never gave in to the cravings, which is more than I can say about myself in regards'ta…well, anythin', really. Seriously, when it comes to controlling my urges, I'm worse than Lilith by far," he laughed.

"… Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"No, but my point is, even if you _have_ had a taste of it, you're still smarter than the cravings. And if you need help, you've got me, and Gaige, and maybe Salvador. Heck, maybe even Zer0, though I got no idea how much explaining it would take to make him understand. So you know what? I'll take over treasurer duties when it comes'ta Eridium. And…" his grin sharpened a bit, "if you ever need to feel alive, I can help with that too-"

Axton of course sensed the slap coming from a mile away, but he decided to just take it full-on. He probably deserved it.

Still chuckling, he whined with mock indignation, "C'mon, you don't even know what I was gonna say!"

Pursing her lips together irritably, Maya sighed, "Yes I do."

Axton raised an eyebrow, then grinned again, "Yeah, ya do."

Rising to his feet, Axton offered his hand, which Maya accepted as she wiped the tears from her eyes and cheeks. As she leaned back against the wall again, Axton joined her, and the two looked up at the moon.

"… Axton?"

"Yeah, boss?" the commando asked. He felt the Siren shuffle slightly closer, so that their shoulders were just barely touching.

"… Thank you."

"Least I can do, darlin'. You compromise yourself, and who'll lead the team, huh? Gaige doesn't have the experience or composure, Salvador doesn't have the organization, and Zer0 doesn't have the moral understanding and/or attention span, I'm really not sure. And me? Well, _that_ might be the worst idea of all…"

Maya turned to look at him, and asked, "Why? Weren't you a squad leader when you were with Dahl?"

Axton glanced over and grimaced, "Yeah, and I got sentenced to death for my leadership, or lack thereof. See, what _I_ don't have that you do is…well my ex-wife-slash-CO put it to me like this: I consistently prioritize personal glory over following orders. And she was absolutely right. Same goes for giving orders."

"You lead us pretty well on the battlefield."

"I just give you tactical advice. The orders are, when ya get right down to it, _yours_. Because if _I_ was giving the orders, I'd always be telling you guys to fall back so I could make the killing shots myself. That worked well enough, if not necessarily _great_, with an obedient squad, who only cared that the job got done, but can you imagine Salvador taking an order to fall back? Let alone _Zer0_."

"Okay… You've made your point," Maya sighed sourly, looking back skyward.

Axton's eyes turned back to the sky as well, but instead of looking at the moon, he instead began searching through the stars.

"Hey Maya, you strike me as pretty learned."

"I did my share of reading in the Abbey Library when I wasn't training. Still, given how little Brother Sophis wanted me to know of the galaxy at large, I imagine that any information of real value was kept away from me."

"Got any idea where Themis is?"

"I'm sure Tannis has an Atlas-"

"Nah, I'm just wondering if it's out there somewhere where I can look up and see it."

"… May I ask what's on Themis?"

"My ex-Battalion…" Axton sighed, reaching up to the chain around his neck from which his dog tags hung and clutching a silver band with a large diamond set in the center, "And my ex-wife…the one who did such a good job summin' up everything wrong with me."

"Please, Axton. Being a glory hound is about…the _fourth_ worst thing about you, give or take," Maya let out a chuckle.

Axton returned it, "Heh. Sadly I can't argue that. And frankly, she probably wouldn't either. Which makes me wonder: Why in the hell did she marry me, then?"

"Um…"

"… Did I ever show you this?" Axton held up the ring, still chained to his neck, "The wedding ring I gave her."

"… It's very pretty," Maya said, looking at the band, "Very impressive."

"That's what I thought. Thought it'd make up for the fact that there was no engagement ring. Y'know what Sarah said when she gave it back to me?"

Maya just shook her head.

"She told me she never liked diamonds," Axton gave a desperate laugh, "Can ya believe that? I went to marry her without even knowin' she didn't like diamonds. And I never bothered to find out 'cause I was so obsessed with impressin' her."

"And despite that, and the presumably numerous other mistakes you made, she still married you. Not the ring. _You_."

"Well, I can tell ya right now, she had a big enough case'a buyers remorse to send me to the firing squad-"

"Wait… If she sent you to be executed, then why did she give you back the ring?"

"Uh…" Axton stared blankly for a moment, then shrugged, "Well, she did kinda tell me to go AWOL the night before the MPs came for me. Or rather, say that as my superior she definitely _could not_ tell me to flee to one of the border worlds."

Maya held her forehead and shook her head, chuckling, before looking back up at Axton and saying, "Axton, I hate to be the one to point out the obvious, but Sarah very clearly still cared about you. If she _had_ stopped caring, then what was it to her if you were executed? And if she didn't like the ring, she could have easily sold it."

"I guess, but-"

"'But' nothing. Perhaps you _are_ a terrible soldier. And maybe you weren't a great husband, either. But don't think for one second that you're a terrible man. Sarah knew it, knew that in the right place, you could be a hero. Well…" Maya fidgeted with her thumbs for a moment before softly whispering, "…here we are."

"… Hey, boss," Axton said, unclipping the chain from around his neck, and pulling the ring off, "Here."

As Axton held the ring out to Maya, the Siren stumbled over her words. "Axton, but- That's- I-"

"My contribution to the war chest. Hock it to Marcus, and get something for the team. Seems like the right thing to do with it. Can't imagine Sarah would want a ring she didn't like just hanging around as a reminder of her."

Maya face turned red as she hesitantly took the silver band, "… Why do you want _me_ to sell it?"

Axton gave her a broad grin, "Simple, darlin': Marcus'll give more to you for it than to me; you've got a nicer chest," he chuckled, recalling the "valuable contents" of the merchant's private safe…and recalling the collectively hilarious reactions of his teammates upon those contents providing them with a very generous view of Moxxi's…everything: Maya's embarrassed sputtering, Salvador's raucous laughter, Zer0's confusion, and Gaige's professed disinterest…despite trying to sneak a few peeks over Salvador's shoulders.

Maya's face flushed deep crimson, and Axton for a moment was sure that another slap was imminent. With a sigh, she pocketed the ring, then stood up from the wall, stretching her arms over her head, before heading towards the door, all without raising a hand to him. "We should probably turn in, Axton. The sun will be up in a few hours, and it sounds like we have another busy day ahead."

"Seems like," Axton agreed, rolling his shoulders to crack them and rising to follow her.

As she grasped the knob, however, Maya paused, then turned back to Axton and slowly wrapped her arms around his chest, pressing her forehead to his chin, "Thank you…for having my back."

Axton slowly encircled his arms around her shoulders, nuzzling the top of her head, "Thanks for havin' mine."

They held each other for a moment, before Maya looked up and gently pressed her lips against Axton's nose. The commando was seized for the briefest of moments by the urge to raise his own lips to hers, but thought better of it, deciding to just enjoy the feeling of closeness. Maya then stepped back, turned, and opened the door. The pair descended wordlessly down the stairs and across the halls until they arrived back on the ground floor.

As they stopped at the base of the stairs, outside Maya's room, the Siren faced Axton, as she pulled her key out of her thigh pocket and murmured, "Goodnight, Axton," bowing slightly.

"G'night, Maya," Axton replied with a casual salute, and turned down the hall towards his own room. After a few steps, he turned back: though the chance was basically nil, he _had_ to ask, "So, any chance'a you takin' me up on the offer to feel alive?" offering his biggest grin.

Maya narrowed her eyes and raised one eyebrow, before sighing, "Good _night_, Axton."

"Figured as much. Can't blame me for tryin', right?"

Her scowl softening slightly, Maya answered, "No… I don't suppose I can," before turning back to her open door. Just before she stepped inside, she cast Axton one last glance, her lips curling up just slightly.

Then, as Axton gazed into Maya's silver eyes, he sensed, just for a moment, that she was considering inviting him in. He couldn't help but let his jaw slacken.

This subtle change in his expression was not lost on Maya, who smirked, tilted her shoulder, hooked her left thumb in her belt loop, dropping the waistband slightly, and with gentle whip of her head tossed her hair, turning her chin up and tilting her hips just slightly, enough to give Axton a perfect view of her shapely silhouette, and of her bare left hip. Axton's heart very nearly stopped, and had his jaw been able to, it would have hit the floor.

With a deeply satisfied snicker, Maya vanished into the darkness of her room, closing the door behind her.

After a long moment of shock, he realized that Maya had just turned the flirting-table on him, and he had _deeply _enjoyed it. Shaking his head, he turned, still stunned, back toward his room.

"… Damn, but I love that woman," he muttered as he opened his door.

* * *

And that's where the story ends for now, at least until I come up with another workable idea. I've got a vague idea for Mordecai and Moxxi, and an even vaguer idea for Brick and Tannis, but nothing concrete yet. Feel free to leave suggestions about other characters, and lemme know what-all ya think of this chapter.

And, since it can't be stressed enough, I hope you enjoy it.


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